Author John Casteen IV steps out to read from his latest book, For the Mountain Laurel, on Wednesday as part of the Virginia Festival of the Book. (Photo by Ashley Twiggs) What do a basketball legend, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, a bestselling novelist, an acclaimed Mexican poet, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning climatologist and an African […]
Author John Casteen IV steps out to read from his latest book, For the Mountain Laurel, on Wednesday as part of the Virginia Festival of the Book. (Photo by Ashley Twiggs) What do a basketball legend, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, a bestselling novelist, an acclaimed Mexican poet, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning climatologist and an African […]
(Photo by Andrea Hubbell) Book clubbers know that the ante’s been upped in terms of food. No longer does slapping a brie wheel and some boxed wine down on the coffee table suffice. Good books and good company deserve good food, so treat your monthly book club meet-up as a well-deserved night out and […]
Blenheim Vineyards has recently renovated the circa 1846 house that’s adjacent to the property for classes and special events.
The top chef When Tom Colicchio comes to the Paramount on Sunday*, call him the winner of multiple James Beard awards or the no-nonsense judge of Bravo’s “Top Chef.” Just don’t call him a celebrity chef. “I hate that term,” he said in our recent phone interview. But with nine seasons of the Emmy Award-winning […]
In a good vintage, the hardest job for winemakers is staying hands-off enough to let lovely fruit speak for itself.
Working at a gallery in downtown St. Louis in his early 20s, Greg Antrim Kelly would watch the pigeons outside. “They were kind of this outlet,” he told us. “Like some sort of direct connection to the natural world when I was in that urban environment.” Greg Kelly draws beauty on the inside in his […]
GREEN EYE Plant your own forest If you’re longing for a more verdant landscape outside your kitchen window—or if you just believe in the importance of oxygen—how about planting some trees? The Virginia Department of Forestry grows and sells upwards of 24 million tree seedlings every year, in a few dozen varieties—from hardwoods like red […]
The fragrance of Froot Loops permeates the air, wafting from three winter honeysuckle (Lonicera fragrantissima) fortuitously planted at the base of an electric pole out in the east garden between the house and road. Over a dozen years they’ve matured into softly rounded cloud-like forms about 8’ all around, without any pruning other than occasional […]
It’s been three snotty, sore-throated weeks in the Baker household. After a lovely snowed-in weekend with family up in Philadelphia, we brought home some belated Christmas gifts and what we have been referring to as the Demon Cold from Hell. The sickness first hit me on the return drive to Charlottesville. My two sons, Pierce […]
Vinegar is a magical elixir in the kitchen. It’s produced by acetobacter, a bacterium that thrives in warm, oxygenated environments and transforms alcohol into acetic acid. While acetobacter is the sworn enemy of winemakers (because it can “spoil” large quantities of wine in a short time) it is the friend of homemakers and cooks because […]